The Editor

The Editor is a villain who appeared in the British sci-fi series Doctor Who, appearing in the episode "The Long Game". He is notable as being one of the relatively few Doctor Who antagonists who is human rather than alien (though he was a servant to an alien being).

History

Little was known about the Editor, except that he managed the operations of Satellite 5 from Floor 500, unseen and unknown to the rank-and-file journalists who packaged and broadcast the news over 600 channels. He monitored the thoughts of all those connected to the archives of the station via chips implanted into people's heads, which were required to access the computer systems of the 2001st century. Through these implants, the Editor was able to instantly know whatever the person connected knew, and was even able to sense when a record was fictional or not, or that there was something out of place with a particular individual before a security check confirmed it.

The Editor was a smooth and sinister individual in the mould of an evil genius, but was not the true controller of the station. He reported to the Jagrafess. The Editor claimed that he represented a consortium of interstellar banks whose intent was to subtly control the Empire by means of manipulating the news. In the 90 years since Satellite 5 had been established, the social, economic and technological development of the human race had been fixed, making them inward-looking and xenophobic. When the Doctor investigated this, he and Rose were captured by the Editor.

Initially, the Editor was both intrigued and frustrated at the fact that records of their existence did not seem to exist in the archives. However, because the Doctor's new companion Adam had accessed the archives of the Satellite, the Editor acquired the knowledge that the Doctor was a Time Lord and had a TARDIS capable of time travel.

Before he could gain the Doctor's secrets or claim the TARDIS, however, a human journalist; Cathica Santini Khadeni (who had been following the Doctor's investigation) reversed the environmental controls of Floor 500 that had been kept at an icy temperature vital for keeping the Jagrafess alive. When he realized that the Jagrafess was going to die he tried to escape but a corpse grabbed his foot, and he was supposedly killed when the Jagrafess exploded.